


Gather 'Round the Campfire

by funkmetalalchemist



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Campfires, Canon Compliant, Everyone's happy, F/F, Gen, Happy, M/M, Scary Stories, Singing, and nobody's sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-18
Updated: 2014-01-18
Packaged: 2018-01-09 03:39:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,308
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1140979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/funkmetalalchemist/pseuds/funkmetalalchemist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Some members of the 104th take a well-earned night off.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gather 'Round the Campfire

It started with a bottle of alcohol. This particular bottle of alcohol was actually really just some cooking wine that Sasha, through the shades of his office window, had seen Shadis place in his bottom desk drawer. From there, it was a matter of distraction.

Connie volunteered for the job, and volunteered an unwitting Jean along with him. Besides, what was a little fist fight in the corridor between friends, especially if it was all for the greater good? Shadis, as expected, broke up the fight while Sasha and Ymir made Krista sneak into his office to get the goods, their reasoning being that, if there was one person Shadis wouldn’t kill for this, it would be her. When Krista came out of the office and gave a nervous smile, revealing the neck of a dark glass bottle from the inside of her sweater. Sasha and Ymir converged on her to conceal it again, and in the process, Ymir’s lips may have met hers. If they did, Sasha didn’t say anything.

That night after an hour or so of darkness, Connie and Sasha, as unofficial organizers of the event, woke up every trainee they thought would keep their mouths shut and quietly ushered them out of the barracks and deep into the woods. Most of the attendees knew what was going on, and others were filled in along the way. A few people brought supplies with them. Armin’s was the most conspicuous, though: a dark brown leather case, clipped shut and carried with care in Armin’s arms as he cheerfully walked alongside Mikasa and Eren. Jean did a fair bit of complaining until Reiner threatened to punch him if he didn’t shut his goddamn mouth for once and enjoy himself, and Jean rubbed at his eye where the cut from his earlier fight with Connie shone in the light of the lanterns Connie and Sasha were holding. Marco nudged him and smiled encouragingly and Jean started grinning back.

After several minutes of walking, they group approached a small clearing where about a dozen large logs were arranged around a small dark pit filled with chopped wood, with even more chopped wood sitting off to the side. Connie and Sasha had apparently been planning this for a while. Everyone found their seats as some began giggling in excitement and Connie stepped forward to light the fire.

Only he couldn’t.

After a few minutes of futilely rubbing sticks together, Bertholdt, who until this point had been planted firmly between Annie and Reiner, quiet as ever, blushingly offered to help Connie out. In under a minute, a small fire had begun. It gradually grew in size until finally it was, in Sasha’s opinion, a true campfire. Ymir took the bottle out of the small bag Krista had brought along, presented it to the group grinningly and accepted the rowdy cheers that accompanied it with a small bow. Ymir took a swig straight from the bottle and passed it to Krista, who took a small sip and grimaced at the taste. One by one, the bottle made its way around the circle, reactions from the small sips they were allowed ranging from hollered yells to coughing and choking. Every once in a while, someone would refuse, and every once in a while, someone would take a bit too much. By the end of the circle, everyone was smiling. There wasn’t enough in the bottle to get everyone drunk, of course, but the feeling of camaraderie mixed with the heinous breaking of Shadis’ precious rules made for a happy group of teenagers.

When the bottle was emptied and tossed to Jean, there was little noise besides the low buzzing hum of the bottle as Jean blew absentmindedly into the hole.  Then, after a while, Reiner asked what they were meant to do now.

Sasha launched into a scary story. At this point in their training, the kids had seen and heard enough to put a damper on most normal scary stories, so Sasha, rather than talking about the big ugly monsters that might eat them alive, made up a story about a murderer whose victims were all small blondes. Krista and Armin rolled their eyes as every face in the circle turned to them, but still smiled as Sasha crept around the circle, this way and that, imitating the movements of the killer. Finally, as the story came to a climax, Sasha made her way behind Armin slowly before she suddenly jumped on him and covered his mouth with her hand and put her finger across his throat, slicing across it slowly. In the crowd, Jean’s hand made its way into Eren’s. For the grand finale, Connie, who had been tending to the fire until this point, snuck up behind Sasha, who was standing over Armin’s body as he played the giggliest dead body any of them had ever seen. With a stick taken from the pile of firewood, Connie made his way quietly behind Sasha and put a quieting finger to his mouth. Finally, he gave a yell and thrust the stick between Sasha’s arm and torso, and she gave a final, pitiful groan, then fell on top of Armin with a huff. The crowd cheered.

People started to shift. As Marco brought out snacks (two extra loaves of bread from the kitchens he had made that morning), some of the group moved to sit on the forest floor, their toes pointing out toward the warm fire. Ymir’s head made its way into Krista’s lap, where Krista began leisurely braiding her hair. Snippets of various conversations began in different areas of the circle and Mikasa quietly looked up at the stars.

Armin, having had a while to calm down from his first real bit of acting experience, finally took the small leather case out from where it leant against the log he was sitting on and placed it on his lap. Everyone turned to watch curiously. He clicked the two small clips open and opened the case. From the case he took out an old, worn mandolin. Armin held his ear up to the body as he plucked at the strings and fiddled with the tuning pegs for a few minutes. He played a chord, testing out the sound, then smiled and asked for requests. Surprisingly, it was Annie who answered first, requesting simply a song that everyone knew. Armin thought on it for a few moments before he struck out the first opening chords to an old folk song about the tale of three girls who took down a titan. Eren sang first, and louder than anyone else dared to. After Eren had sung a few bars by himself, Armin smiling up at him as he strummed out the chords, Mikasa joined in with her quiet, clear soprano. Connie and Sasha, their arms thrown over each other’s shoulders and broad grins plastered onto their faces, joined in, harmonizing in a way that mostly consisted of guessing a note and hoping. After some laughter, other voices began to join in. Reiner’s voice was a low, booming baritone that guided the song, as Eren squeezed at Jean’s hand until he finally, hesitantly, began singing along in his uneven, scratchy voice. Annie watched with a small smile and let her eyes fall shut, her head drooping against Bertholdt’s shoulder as he mouthed along to the words. The noise of the teenagers laughing and singing about three girls outsmarting a beast filled the woods.

As he strummed, maybe somewhat clumsily in his happiness, Armin, too, looked to the sky, at all the stars and the darkness and that shimmering band of light crossing overhead and he wondered absently if any of those silly sparkling lights could hear their music. He imagined all the stars singing along, and he opened his mouth to sing with them.

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little thing I thought I'd do! :) This is very loosely based on a fanart by [goldtectonic](http://goldtectonic.tumblr.com/post/73578687818/ive-never-drawn-so-many-people-in-one-place-in-my) that I could not stop thinking about at work today.


End file.
